FTSE 100 movers: Gold miners shine; SA stocks under pressure

London's FTSE 100 was up 0.5% to 7,317.51 in afternoon trade as the pound slipped and investors digested UK construction figures.

Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources were the standout gainers as gold prices rallied.

Distribution giant Bunzl was on the front foot after saying it has bought two safety businesses in the US and Italy for an undisclosed sum.

Rat catcher Rentokil was in the black as Exane BNP Paribas initiated coverage of the stock at 'outperform'.

South African focused stocks Mediclinic and Old mutual were under the cosh as the rand slumped overnight after Standard & Poor's cut the nation's sovereign credit rating to 'junk'.

Mediclinic was also dragged lower after Macquarie downgraded the private hospital group to 'neutral' from 'outperform' and reduced the price target to 770p from 860p.

The bank said it expects the business environment in the UAE health space to remain tough and that a recovery to the previous margin levels was highly unlikely in the near term.

RBS was weaker after European regulators launched an in-depth probe into the decision to allow the bank an alternative option rather than offloading its Williams & Glyn business.

Morrisons was trading lower despite the release of data from Kantar Worldpanel, which showed the supermarket was the only one of the 'big four' to grow sales over the past 12 weeks. Rival Sainsburys was also on the back foot after the data showed that its sales fell 0.7% and its market share declined by 0.3 percentage points.

Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,596.00p 2.84%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,210.00p 2.49%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,347.00p 2.00%
WPP (WPP) 1,766.00p 1.96%
3i Group (III) 750.50p 1.90%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,250.00p 1.79%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,240.00p 1.68%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 250.40p 1.66%
Pearson (PSON) 687.00p 1.55%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 762.00p 1.53%

Fallers

Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 257.30p -2.24%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 695.50p -2.11%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 235.00p -2.04%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,552.00p -1.88%
Barclays (BARC) 217.95p -1.58%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 234.70p -1.26%
Old Mutual (OML) 196.20p -1.16%
GKN (GKN) 359.40p -0.99%
BT Group (BT.A) 313.90p -0.66%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,011.00p -0.59%